How Soon Is “Too Soon” To Relax Your Child’s Hair

Our view of the world has changed and a lot of things that used to be considered really important and only meant for individuals of certain age are now being done by children of all ages. Back then, female children looked forward to that point in their life when they could relax their hair and this milestone was usually set by the mother. “You can relax your hair when you leave primary school or when you are 13 years old or if you pass your common entrance”. Looking back now, relaxing your hair was a rite of passage of sorts for most girls.

But that isn’t the case right now, girls of 4 are wearing permed hair and wearing weaves imported from fancy countries. Mostly because a few years back, it wasn’t safe to use relaxer on a child’s hair but now that perming hair is mainstream, there are ‘kid friendly relaxers’.Now that your daughter’s hair is a little too kinky for you to handle, you start to ask yourself: at what age is it okay to relax your child’s hair?

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If you are at this crossroad, there is one important question you need to answer before going to purchase that relaxer with a beautiful smiling girl on the pack:

Why are you relaxing your little girl’s hair?

Women generally get their kinks straightened for one of three reasons

– Relaxed hair is easier to manage

– Relaxed hair is finer

– Kinky hair is meant to be relaxed and there is simply no other way

The why is really important because if you really examine the reason behind your decision, you might discover that there is really no need to take this step.

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Easier to manage

You may have chosen to perm your daughter’s hair because natural hair is difficult to manage and you simply do not have the time to detangle in sections. But did you also know that there are hair products specifically for kids? They make the hair so soft, your hands can just slide right through. Also a little water sprinkled on natural hair goes a long way.

Relaxed hair is finer

You may be considering this option because you think that relaxed hair is finer than kinky hair. But this isn’t true, relaxed hair is versatile and can be styled in so many beautiful ways. Also would it really be progressive to indirectly tell your little girl that what she was born with isn’t good enough?

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Should you decide to continue with your decision, there are a couple of relaxer facts you should note.

No matter how many fancy words are packed on the relaxer pack or how many times ‘organic’ is written on it, the truth is a perm is a perm and a perm is chemical. It may be in lighter quantity but it still remains chemical. Also these chemicals are so strong, they can sometimes burn a hole in your head. Just how safe does that sound? Especially for your tender-haired princess.

Constant use of relaxer would thin out the hair and if the chemicals are used regularly from a young age, the damage could be permanent. It may become so bad that if you want to grow healthy hair, you have to let all the relaxed parts go. Lots of women who had really damaged (balding and thinning) hair cut it all off, grew again without using relaxer and their hair become fuller and healthier.

All things considered, you shouldn’t try to perm your child’s hair till she’s old enough to understand the process would hurt and is old enough withstand the pain (should it come to that).

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